Home
by Moon Knightress
Summary: Selina has always been the stray, just when she finally as a home she runs and he chases only to show her that what they have is far greater than a home...it's a sanctuary. Post -TDKR before the cafe scene-also a glimpse into Selina's past.
1. Chapter 1

**Home  
**

**Selina has always been the stray, just when she finally as a home she runs and he chases only to show her that what they have is far greater than a home...it's a sanctuary. Post -TDKR before the cafe scene.  
**

* * *

'How can I move on?"

Selina looks out at Arno River with steady dark caramel eyes, her ruby lips curved into a dedicate smile as sunlight glowed over her alabaster skin, revealing freckles in different sized under large her eyes, cheeks and bare shapely shoulders. She kept her eyes focused on sunrise as if it was a rare treasure covered by a veil.

Once in another lifetime she gave no men the opened invitation to enter her world. Sure, they desired to tasted her lips, silky auburn hair and to use her body for their purposes of filling their greedy needs that would faded out once the dream was over. She was left abandoned left a security of a home, because deep down they never knew the true woman that she was concealing behind the mask of her own shaded heart.

They were dogs and treated her like a unwelcome stray, kicking her to curb and stealing another piece of her that could never be reclaimed.

_You're nothing but a lost kitten. No one will ever love you._

Then one night, a door was left opened and she entered the home, not knowing that was behind it. Until she caught a glimpse of something worth more to her than diamonds and jewels. Something that was rare for a thief to take in those desperate times of surviving without any hope of the morning sunrise.

_That's a beautiful necklace...reminds me of the one my mother wore._

When she stared into those mysterious hazel eyes that revealed pain with the mixture of smoldering gold and soft green, she knew that she had found her home. What is permanent?

"Selina," His deep, soothing baritone wafts behind her. "You're acting more quieter than usual. You alright?'

She turns her head briefly, her dark eyes softened with stinging tears as guilt became etched over her creamy features. She absorbs his appearance, a mute purple shirt unbutton with a white T-shirt underneath and a pair of jeans that fit snug around his slender waist. His hazel orbs are crisp but still weary with tousled bangs hanging at the crease of his hooded eyes. Luscious wavy layered dark brown locks capture the sunlight beaming over his youthful, chiseled features.

"I'm fine." she shot back with a defensively tone, feeling shard of ice jab into her wounded soul. She offered him a weak smile before crossing her arms over her chest and moving her heels closer to the edge of the dock boards. She narrowed her teary eyes down at the ripples of the water, catching the glistening reflections of the fading sunlight. Pure gold with tinges of rose.

Bruce looks into her dark eyes. "Don't lie to me," he says with a hint of a growl edging at his voice. "I know you too well, Selina Kyle."

She stiffens her jaw, frown as she looks down at her cobalt blue summer dress that made her appear to be enchanting as a sapphire jewel and as rare as a winter rose. The shroud of guilt and remorse etched over her face betrayed her concealed emotions that tugged hard against her heart strings. Her face shifted into something more darker, and more complex. Bruce was used to her countenance shifts by now-but he still trying to unmask her fully without the shackles of her past holding her back.

"Do you?" she hisses, tensing her shoulders. "You just know a bit about me, Wayne. Not everything." she points out bluntly. "Not the hell I've been through because of my damn mistakes. But what to expect I'm not a good girl. Never will be. You're better off without me, handsome."

Her words lash him across the face, and Bruce's jaw tenses as he regards her with a soulful gaze.

"You're unbelievable," he growls with a curvy scowl. "We've been together for a month. You still don't trust me."

She tightens her lips into a sour line, and shakes her head. "This has nothing to do with trust, Bruce."

"Let me ask you something...why are keeping your past away from me, Selina?" He leans in forward, his hands trying to grasping her upper arms, she deliberately pulls herself away from him. "I thought we both agreed on putting the past behind us but it looks like you're ready to give it up and let it have it's day."

Selina shakes her head grimly, and Bruce stares as a tear straying down her cheek, which she quickly wipes away with the back of her hand as she swallows a lump in her throat. "I can't, Bruce." She reveals quietly almost to a whispering level. "I can't open myself to you, to us, fully, if I don't shake the ashes of the past off my feet. You're free from everything. You got a chance to live with the bullet grinding in your soul. You need all of me. I can't give you what you want. I'll always be a stray. It's who I am in this life."

She places her hand gently on his cheek, and smiles deeply at him and he eyes her with a weary look mixed with unwashed tears. "You're a good man, Bruce. One of the best. You've deserve freedom. So I going to give it back to you. Clean Slate me out of your heart." She leans her head close to him and presses a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Don't do this, Selina?" he urges, his soul is aching.

She pats his cheek lightly, "I've never been one to say good bye." She brushes her lips over his mouth. "I wish things we're different behind us," she clamps her eyes shut for a moment, as her lips trembles over his moist upper lip. "We can't live a normal life. We have to be who we are...you're the prince and I'm the thief. No computer program can change that, Bruce."

She steps away from him, her arms enclosed over her chest, " Have a good life, Mr. Wayne."

Bruce lowers his head down, he feels torn inside as his hand slips into his jean's pocket and he pulls out the string of pearls, "Selina...wait.." He lifts his head and sees that she is gone. His hand clenches the necklace. He clenches his eyes, allowing tears to roll down the outline of his cheek and he knows the truth why she is running away.

He holds the pearls close to his chest and says quietly, "I love you too, Selina Kyle."

* * *

**A/N: The reason why I so many stories is because I have notebooks filled with all kinds of ideas and scribbles of ideas and I want to put them on here because it don't they'll never see the light of day. Lots more to come and all the other stories will be updated as well. Enjoy and thank you.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2  
**

* * *

"Do I love him?"

Those were the words that gathered in Selina's mind as she stood motionless in front of their bed of their riverfront villa loft and narrowed her dark brown orbs at the empty suitcase. She could feel solitary tears straying down the apples of her alabaster cheeks, feeling a torturing symphony sounding inside her heart. She took a few steps back and tried to regain her icy composure. "He's better off without me," the rawness of her throat produced as she wiped away the wetness of her face with the back of her hand. "I don't deserve him."

She stared at the black tie hanging on the back of the vanity's chair, she took a few quick strides and grazed a delicate touch over the silk, feeling the sleekness against her fingers. She lifted the tie up, close to her lips and inhaled the scent. His scent that was trapped within the expensive fabric, it was a soothing calm to her twisting soul as she closed her eyes and pressed the smooth material over her ruby tear dropped shaped lips.

_You will always be a stray without a home. No one will take you in..._

She opened her eyes and glanced at her reflection in the mirror as her hand slowly lowered the tie. Her hand touched the coldness of the glass, trying to the grasp the glimpse of her past that her dark eyes beheld but all that was staring back at her was a ghost of woman that was given a chance to live again with the shackles bounded to her feet and making feel the ground beneath tremble from each mistake and grim choice she made when she wore the mask.

She clamped her eyes shut for a moment, letting the tears sting. She opened her teary dark orbs, narrowing her gaze to the fresh rose in the vase, a rose that he picked her from a local market vender in Otranto and paid three Euros out of his own wallet to prove to her that was something foreign, deeper and unsettling between them. She rubbed her hand lightly over the blooming crimson petals, feeling the texture against the pads of her fingers while more tears escaped over her fragile features.

_The afternoon sunlight glistened over the calm waves of the river, she leaned her lithe body against the black iron lamp post, her dark coffee irises dazzling in the rays of light as her ruby lips curved into a blissful smiles she leaned her head back, allowing her straight auburn locks to gracefully fall down her bare freckled shoulders as she swiped her tongue over the corners of her mouth, tasting the lingering flavor of the chocolate she indulged as her hand grazed over the white stone brick of the ledge. She dared herself to opened her eyes, staring at the wisps of white clouds gathering in the azure blue sky as she inhaled the scent of his minty aftershave and listened to the softness, calmness of his rich baritone erupt into the drums of her ears.  
_

_"Good afternoon, Miss Kyle."  
_

_She lowered her dark eyes and felt the edges of her lips upturn into a full, red stupidly, beautiful smile as she blinked against the curtains of auburn cascading over her bro. He was standing a breath away from her, dressed in a black shirt with a few top buttons done to show off his sculpted chest, dark blue denim jeans with one hand tucked away in his pocket, his face is beaming with contentment and youth. His forest-hazel eyes looked clear and well-rested as a few wisps of his dark brown wavy-layered tousled hair twirled in the warm breeze from the ocean as his chiseled cut-stone features capture the warmth of sunlight. A single red rose was firmly grasped in his hand and a snug smile was etched over his thinned, boyish lips as the indents and laugh lines molded his smile into something loving and tender. _

_"I thought you we're flying out today?" she responded evenly, with a tiny smirk.  
_

_He shrugged his shoulders, carelessly. "I took the day off."_

_"Really?" she gave him a pointed look. " And what reason would that be, Mr. Wayne?"_

_"I was thinking about doing a bit of sight seeing ," he replied as a small smile played on his lips. "Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore caught my eye."_

_"Let me guess you want me to accompany you?" she asked, indignant. She arched one eyebrow up and looked down at the rose. "That's for me, huh?"  
_

_"If you want a diamond necklace...you're going to have to wait until my next paycheck, Miss Kyle."_

_"Which is tomorrow?" she gave him a pointed look before releasing a sigh. "The rose will do for now."  
_

_"I was hoping you would say that," he said softly, and reached out his hand, placed the rose in a layer of dark auburn as his fingers gently caressed over her forehead. He moved his hand lower to her arm and grasped it firmly while dropping his intense, tender gaze into her eyes. "Look, Selina if you don't want to come with me, I understand." He formed his lips in a sulkily frown.  
_

_She averted her eyes away from him for a moment, aiming a softening gaze to sail boats skimming over the water in the distance and then she let out a shallow breath.  
_

_"I need to stock up on food from the market. Since you ate most of it."_

_"You're a good cook," he smirked and she watched his eyes grew crisp, as he lifted up his chin. "I'll admit I'm not efficient as you are in the kitchen." He cupped her cheek with his hand. "I think if we work together ...we can make something expectational."  
_

_"Expectational," she repeated with a dangerous flare in her eyes. "What did you have in mind?"_

_He smiled at her with his answer and then stuffed his other hand into the pocket of his jeans. "I'm thinking something Italian and maybe a bit of French cuisine combine. What do you think?"  
_

_She sniffed, being indignant. "Why this combination? Maybe I want an American cheese burger." _

_"Maybe you do...but around here everything isn't your style, Miss Kyle."_

_For a split second, she feels her taste buds dance on her tongue as the flavors of a greasy burger from a Gotham diner makes her mouth slightly water and stomach instantly growl. She began to crave the old tastes of Gotham, the hot dog stands on street corners, chicken delicate from sports bars and the fatten desserts from local bakeries near Old Town.  
_

_"You get me something American and then we'll sight seeing, Mr. Wayne." _

_"That's going to hard, since we're in Otranto. I can have what you want imported from Gotham."_

_"Alright seems fair. I want your Lamborghini with a full tank in front of my apartment in two weeks. No exceptions." _

_"I'll see what I can do," he answered evenly. "But I want something in return."  
_

_Selina felt her skin ripple when she heard those words escape from his soft lips. Her defenses shot right up. "And that would be what?" she asked, with an edging tone._

_"A home cooked Italian meal at your place," he replied, inching forward, his breath ghosting over her firm lips. "And this..." He crushed his lips tentatively with a soft, moist caress over her mouth as his arm snaked around her trim waist and he pulled her into a tight, scorching embrace._

Selina blinked her eyes opened and back away from the vanity, roving her teary gaze back to the suitcase with an unsteady expression etched over her pale slightly freckled features.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3  
**

* * *

"Wayne!"

Selina snarled and aggressively threw her shoes, dresses and beauty products she could stuff into the confines of the suit case, instead of closing it with the zipper, she rammed a fist into the mattress, making her knuckles twist into the blankets as her full burgundy wine-colored lips curved into a lethal scowl as she made her teary, and hard gaze hit the ceiling before she quickly swiped away the tears staining over her alabaster cheeks. She instantly sat up, crunching her trim abdomen and regained her strong, feline poise as the door knob of the apartment turned with slightly movement, making a fever rise in her veins. She clenched her jaw, and zipped up the suitcase, fixing the hem of her blue dress with her flat palm. She let a small frustrated sigh and clamped her eyes shut, allowing her thick lashes to absorb the remind of the moisture.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, becoming her rib cage ripple, as she started breathing out fire and squinted her cold gaze of dark coffee at the doorway, anticipating her next move and then she creased her eyebrows, feeling her gray shaded slipping deeper into the void, making her feel stricken from emotions. She tensed her muscles in her jaw and took a deep, fuming exhale of breath. She sauntered to the doorway, she knew that his hazel, piercing and soulful eyes were looking at the groves of the white-painted door, the only barrier keeping their gazes apart. Her hand slowly reached for the chain lock, and swiped the pad of her finger over the golden metal. She took another exhale, trying to grasp her guarded composure as her eyes fell to the door knob.

She quickly unlocked the door and did quick strides with her white sandals to the balcony, climbed the fire escape to the building's roof and clicked her heels, arms folded protectively over her chest, as she crossed the roof to the ledge and rubbed her long and shaky fingers over the cement.

There were many cracks in her frozen heart, breaking. Too many that caused sharp jabs into her chest. She roved her gaze to the shimmering, rippling waters of the river below her, and she set her jaw down hard, feeling to collection so many whys and reasons that skimmed through her restless mind. She felt the darkness in her soul lift by the light he cast, by the warm kisses she embraced during their tender moments when they were free from the echoes of the past. No one else knew her heart better that Bruce Wayne, he was beckon to guide from the shroud of blackness, he grasp the thing she kept inside, out of the light and wrapped in her self-loathing pride. He kept her secrets. He held her ground, when the earth was crumbling at her feet he would be there reaching out a hand, an anchor to life her back up.

She stole many things in her life, worthless treasures that would fade in time but for once someone had stolen one thing-her heart. Bruce Wayne had stolen her heart when she watched his battered and strong-willed body become a punching bag to Bane's massive brutality as she stood in the behind the rusted bars, gripping the coldness of death as she watched a good man fight with every ounce of his strength until he met his defeat and became broken, as she heard the sickening, deafening crack of his bones erupted in her ears. Somehow he had made her stronger during those moments of regretting her choices with build ups of tears welling in her eyes. He had made become a new woman as she transformed herself into a solider for No Man's land and some how became his shield when they faced Bane's army on the snow-covered streets of Gotham.

She clenched her eyes shut, feeling the warm breeze rush over her lithe body. "I have to do this," she muttered under her breath in a low whisper, feeling a bit of uneasy. "He's too good for me. I don't deserve him...I don't deserve anyone." She stiffened her jaw, as a recessing memory of her distant, wild adolescence years came back to haunt her mind. She was nineteen, hopped on a first class flight to Austria with the false identity of Irena Carter, skiing and snowboarding on the Swiss Alps, were manipulating her German instructor Hans after she pretended to sprain her ankle, only to get inside his pants, stealing his wallet, leaving him breathless with a few bruised limbs and some broken lamps.

_They'd been trapped inside the resort for two days and it was three in the morning. They spent all day in the hot tub, applying ice packs on her so called wounded ankle and teaching each other how to speak German and American, before bed- frame breaking and the laughing in front of a crackling fire. Bottles of red and white wine were empty, chocolate boxes were devoured. Cloths were piled in heaps, and lamps shattered that would probably cost thousands of dollars worth of damage had been iccured within the loft, and yet when the earth quaking sex was finished, and she was flat on her back feeling the heat of his body, she felt his arms wrap around her tenderly and accepting. like she was breakable German, alabaster doll, valuable and flawless. She was not a lover but a treasure to his feverish red haired stranger that she had just thrown around in the loft. _

_He was gentlemen, with a German burr that made her dark eyes dazzle as his soft lips bruised over her neck. giving her the passion her broken heart deserved as they shared soft gazes of coffee and emerald, she wondered if he was even real as his quirky smirks made her laugh but then the blissful moments were drained out of her body as her mind drifted back to her father's cruel words, and she fought against the torture his anger and brutality . She felt the spasms in her breast bone, off the muddy boots kicking her when she shot back to his authority. From enduring the verbal and physical jabs of her father, she grew cold towards men and did not give a damn about __anything that did not concern her.  
_

_She was lying the toned arms of Hans, listening his German accented voice sweet music against the shell of her ear, as she kept her wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he was staring deeply into her eyes , caressing every part of her naked body, jaw, shoulders and dangerous curvy hips. She cringed slightly against him, feeling his lips press over her scars, she was thankful he didn't question her about her mementos of the backdrops of Gotham, and she made up some random lie that she was an Olympic athlete training overseas and that her trainer a stocky, dark haired American with an unusual comb-over and pot belly had ditched her before the finals in Russia._

_Hans looked at her with tenderness it made her disobedient heart flutter inside her chest, he had given her everything she wanted within five days,his green eyes looked at her like she'd always dreamed a man would but actually never expected. She smiled brightly at him, with full red smile, twisting her fingers through his red hair and contemplated on the reasons why she was in this state of her life at the moment and couldn't stop thinking about father and why she always kept her mouth shut and feelings guarded when the truth had to be spoken and the tears released, but that wasn't her style, and it the end after spending a few more weeks with Hans in Germany, she finished her business with him, stole some cash and left her lip imprint on his cheek while purring against his sleeping form after she laced it with a heavy dose of Sleep Aid.  
_

_"Don't worry handsome, you're not the first sucker to have fallen for me."_

_Just like a cat in the dark, she was gone out of his life...leaving him scarred with her claw marks._

Selina blinked and rolled her eye, scoffing off the memory from her restless mind and scowling, as she shifted her gaze to couples walking on the dock boards across the villa, a father carrying his daughter with his strong arms and she paused in her torturing memories and just stared at the content family, with a sharp and remorseful glare as images of her father cluttered her mind.

She clutched her hand into a tight fist and remembered...

* * *

**A/N : First off thank you for reading and supporting this story. Thank you. Second, this story is going to have lots of flashbacks of Selina's past and lots of heated mature themed romance with Bruce. Enjoy the ride and thanks again.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

_There was stillness in the air, the sound of pelting rain pounding against the glass of her mother's bedroom, as five year old Selina Maria Kyle sat on the white stained carpet floor, running her finger tips of the soft black silk dresses surrounding her tiny body. Her dark brown eyes gleamed a delightful expression as her raided through the shelves of the closet, pulling out white three- inch high heel shoes._

_She felt her pear line lips curved into a satisfied smile as she lifted her chin and became entranced at the white laced summer dress hanging on a hook. She shot up and pulled the dress to the floor. An idea was clotting her young ingenious mind as images of her blissful fairytale struck her mind. She quickly pulled the garment over her tiny arms and adjusted it over her small body. Then, she walked over to her mother's vanity, twirling the train of the dress against the floor. She performed a little dance, expressing the innocence and happiness that flowed through her veins._**  
**

_She pulled out the stool and sat down, staring at the containers of makeup and the long strand of fake pearls that her mother had bought from the east side theft shop. She made her mind, and clasped the necklace around her thin neck and smiled, staring at her freckled covered face. "One day I'm going to own real pearls," she mused dubbing red stick over her lips. "Even if I have to steal them."_**  
**

_After Selina finished her preparation, she rushed out of the bedroom and into the small kitchenette, finding Maria Kyle sitting at the table calculating the months rent while one-half year old Maggie as sitting in a highchair fussing over mushed applesauce. "Look, Mommy! she squealed with a girlish voice." I'm a princess."  
_

_Maria turned her focus at her eldest daughter and smiled sweetly. "Oh really," she placed the bills down on the table and slowly got up and wiped the mess off Maggie's face. She shifted her eyes back to Selina. "Aren't you a beautiful little princess. I wonder who's the lucky prince."  
_

_Selina shrugged. "I don't know. Someone rich and cute."  
_

_Maria's olive green eyes became crisp, as she stepped forward and scooped her seven year tightly in her arms before replying. "That's the important thing. He has to super rich and super cute for my little kitten. And he's gotta treat you like princess, well. Don't you forget about that part." She nuzzled her nose with Selina's. "That's what you are sweetie, my little princess."  
_

_"Mommy," Selina giggled. " That's just in fairy tales."  
_

_"Every little girl deserves to live in castle and marry a super cute prince_**." **_Maria said pressing a soft kiss on Selina's forehead. "Every princess deserves a happily ever after."_**  
**

_Selina observed the sadness in her mother's eyes. "Were you a princess, before you met Daddy?"  
_

_Maria narrowed her eyes slightly. "Don't worry my little kitten…I've already got my fairy tale ending."  
_

_Selina knitted her eyebrows. "How Mommy?" she asked. "You don't live in a castle."  
_

_"Sometimes you don't need a castle to be happy." She looked at her two baby girls and curved her full lips into a smile. "You and Maggie are everything I need." she paused and bore a lovingly gaze into Selina's dazzling coffee-colored eyes. "Just remember this sweetie, you can have all the jewels and diamonds that the world can offer her but if you don't have love…then life will be worthless."  
_

_Selina nodded and smiled. "Okay, Mommy."  
_

_Maria responded with a kiss on her nose. "That's my girl." she said looking at the wall clock above the fridge. "Now it's time to get ready for bed. You're too young to be a creature of the night." She settled Selina back to the ground and gave her a good night kiss. "I love you, Lina."  
_

_Selina wrapped her arms around her mother and whispered before slipping into the shadows of the hallway. "I love you too, Mommy-"_

_The door swung opened, a tall dark haired man, Brian Kyle walked into the apartment, his jeans were covered with car grease and face rugged and dirty. He wiped his mouth with his uniforms sleeves and thumped his boots on the creaking floorboards. "Woman," he growled with a gruff tone, throwing his truck's keys on the table. "You wouldn't believe the day I had." He walked over to the kitchenette, gave Maria a kiss on the cheek and then opened the fridge. He grabbed a beer and popped the cap off against the edge of the counter. He shot a cold glance at Selina. "What the hell is she still doing up?"  
_

_"I wanted to dress pretty for you, Daddy." Selina said with a gentle smile._

_Brian reached a hand down and pulled off the pearl necklace, clutching it into his grimy fist. "This pearls cost me a weeks pay," he raised his hand closer to her face. "You don't deserve pearls, Selina." The five year old looked up at her father with her large teary brown eyes.  
_

_"Brian," Maria stepped in front of her disgruntled daughter. "I understand you had a tough day...you don't need to take it out on our daughter."  
_

_"Our bedroom is off limits in this house." He glared down at Selina who was shaking behind her mother's leg."I don't have time to deal with a little thief not when the boss is breathing down my neck."  
_

_"I'm sorry, Daddy," Selina stepped closer to her fuming father. "I'll never wear Mommy's pearls again." She raced down the hallway and ducked into her bedroom. She climbed onto her bed, grabbed the sleeping black and grey cat who was curled into a ball and hugged her tightly chest her chest as tears strayed down her face.  
_

_"Selina," Maria said with soothing voice as she stood standing in her bedroom's doorway. "What are you doing?"_

_"I didn't mean to make Daddy mad," Selina sniffled, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I just wanted to make him happy."  
_

_"Your father is rough on the edges but he loves you," Maria sauntered to her small bed, filled with second hand stuff animals and pressed a loving kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Don't let the tears take your dreams away, sweetie. You deserve much more than pearls."  
_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5  
**

* * *

Selina flicked her teary dark coffee colored eyes slowly open, leaned her back against the wall as a graze of afternoon rain prickled over her pale skin, jarring her back into reality. She tilted her head back, dark auburn strands cascaded off her bare freckled shoulders, her drenched strands concealed her each side of her face like swede curtains. She parted her full red lips, allowing the droplets of cool rain invade inside her mouth, tasting the fresh water land on her tongue, and she swallowed the running liquid.

She blinked her painted lashes, feeling the sting of dark mascara enter her tears, as the rain continued to soak through her blue cobalt dress and she allowed the tears to flow down to the curvatures of her jaw, allowed them to stain her flawless cheek with warm moisture escaping from her body. Her soul.

Tears vanished in the rain, leaving to trace of her heart clenching sorrow etched on her mask. They wouldn't condemn her, brand her from the past mistakes like the scars that emblazoned over her body from the shards of broken glass from her father's whiskey bottles, knives from initiations of street gangs from the East quarter and a few broken bones that she mended with her strength and endurance. _The life of a stray._

_S_he stared out at the pink and powder blue tinges mixed into the grey slate sky. Grey. Everything was a shade of grey around her.

Her eyes settled on Florence's Roman style architecture as the city's glistening essence twirled into the depth of her still gaze. She held the the picture perfect view captive for a moment, just a brief moment to embrace her new found territory. The colors surrounding her grim shaded soul were like a huge canvas of mystery and romance. Poetry in motion and stillness all entwined into a blissful brush stroke of Western color and darkness.

Selina felt her heart pounding in her chest, rattling her rib cage with disbelieving doubts of a secluded thief. She chose to live this life of running off rooftops and prowling the backdrops of the cities of the world. It was calling and her freedom.

She once considered herself to be a horrible person, self-loathing and spiteful to any who dared to cross her path. She wasn't a good luck charm to gamble with, instead she was bad luck, a black cat that lead men into voids of their own weakness. Why did the billionaire playboy, the charismatic and egoistical prince of Gotham take a chance with her? He had a such much turmoil l and baggage that she dared herself not to unlock. He wanted to close the pages of the chapter he forged in Gotham and start a fresh chapter, with her. She parted her lips and released a frustrated and compressed breath into the moggy air thinking about those piercing hooded hazel eyes of his that stared her down with steady gleam as he looked past her layers in deep into her guarded soul, knowing with inward feelings that she unpredictable as like a cat walking in an alley way, daring her prey with movements that hypnotized him as she turned to another direction.

She remembered staring into his bright hazel eyes, looking at the defeated look welled inside his chasm, almost the same gaze he gaze to her when the grated bars in the sewer tunnel separated them after she revealed her true intentions off turning him over to the hands of the notorious and warfare obsessed terrorist Bane. When she looked into his eyes as he held the pearls she could see beyond the depths of hazel, his soul breaking when she refused to have a life with him because of her own scars of a darker past that she know would never fade.

Her soul ached when she spoke her farewell to him, she wanted hm to have freedom, to live a life without the fragments of his past searing inside him. She wanted him to be happy even through she sacrificed her own love for him to give that chance.

_Chance._

That's all her tortured life has ever been about. Taking risks and chances.

Selina shifted her sharp eyes to the balcony, and there sitting on the surface of the cement, next to potted roses was a black cat staring her with his piercing golden diamond shaped eyes. Selina held his stare, displaying no weakness in her dark eyes as the cat pierced right through her with his cold feline glare. The slender creature was daring her, stretching out his claws while his gaze remained changeless, piercing.

Selina knew she was receiving a choice -embrace the cat fully and become the elusive jewel thief or allow her feline emblem she wore to finally go back into the darkness of the alley in Old Town when she first became the Catwoman three years after she'd watched her mother, Maria being beaten to death by masked thugs inside their apartment.

_Ten year old Selina Kyle was choking on her own blood, tasting the crimson liquid drip down her throat. She had been crying in pain, feeling the stings and aches that entered her frail body, and sunk deep into her violent rain wasted most of the blood away into nearby drain. She kept her dimming brown eyes open and looked at the streaks of lightning flashing in the darkening sky above her.  
_

_The shard of glass lodged inside her abdomen penetrated through her muscle, she screamed a high pitch cry. her body temperature dropping and limbs trembling. She was going into shock. There was no comfort to assure her that her world wasn't ending._

_She was all alone, like a little homeless stray. Dying and forgotten._

_"Mommy," Selina screamed with a hoarse voice, coughing. "Help me."_

_The rain pelted over her shaking body, drenching her dark hair, pounding on the bruises around her eyes, and she grimaced against the searing pain, listening to the thunder roll its sonic booms, vibrating the asphalt underneath her weakening body. "It I will be with you, Mommy."  
_

_Then she heard it, a sound that she would embrace into her gray misted soul. She managed to lift her head out of the murky puddles and caught the stare of a stray ebony furred cat, walking closer to her injured body. The car stopped at her side and looked at her with fearless harvest moon colored eyes. Selina knew it wasn't death. But comfort...Life._

_Looking into the cat's big golden eyes, she felt new found strength enter her small body. She felt the calmness and coldness of the feline penetrate through her soul, and then she embrace that creature as life and made a vow with her blood stained lips as her tears washed away in the rain.  
_

_The vow of the cat._

_Selina lifted herself up the puddles, pulled out the shard and then scooped up the cat in her slender arms and limped into the shadows, feeling the old Selina Maria Kyle die in the droplets of the evening rain as the Catwoman... was born in the shadows that she walked.  
_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

_The cafeteria inside the Gotham Youth detention center was filled with female juvenile delinquent adolescents who offend the justice system with minor crimes and criminal behavior. Each young women shared different pathways and underwent community-based __ rehabilitative programs after short periods of being in the centers. But for some young offenders without the doctrine of the '_parens patriae_ (parent of the nation)' became victim of neglect and were offered more time for their rehabilitation by Gotham's jurisdiction. _

_Fifteen- year- old Selina Kyle was sitting at table, her dark eyes were transfixed with the lime green jello wobbling on her plate. She was the newest juvie, booking in some rehabilitation for the offense of shop lifting and property damage. She shifted her eyes at a few other girls, staring her down with death like glares but she glared back showing no weakness to their concealed threats as she watched a husky teenager with braided hair bend the handle of her spoon and snickered at her. Selina averted her furious dark eyes and continued staring down at her jello.  
_

_A frail blonde haired teenager placed her tray down and sat across from her. "Hey, Selina is everything okay?" she asked with a gentle voice. "You seem a hell of a lot more quieter than usual."_

_Selina sat back and crossed her arms, scowling, the colored of her orange uniform made her large coffee-brown eyes shifted into a darker shade while the look on her pale and thinned features betrayed something fierce and more complex. Her friends were used to the intimation glares and the aggressive composure-she was restless and desired to have freedom from the Gotham justice system and the annoying councilors giving her advice of improving her life by finished eduction and seeking a career wise job. She knew there was no real truth behind those words, just a smudge of assurance of improvement from spending a life behind bars at Stonegate.  
_

_"I heard you had your assessment this morning with your patrol officer. I'm guessing you'll be bailing out of this joint within the coming month, Samone. That's good because you deserve a better life than spending each afternoon staring at the same damn flavor of jello on your plate. When you could be having normal food and a normal life." Selina contained with a hint of spitefulness in her low voice."Do you think your parents will take you back in?"  
_

_Samone gave a little shrug of her trim shoulder, "It's hard to say, since it was my father who got me in here in the first place. Sometimes we couldn't afford babysitters and I had to tag long during his heists." She looked into Selina's dark eyes with an unsettling gleam. "What about you? Did your assessment come through?"  
_

_Selina gave an unfazed expression and slowly rolled hers eyes, " I still have a few things to work out before I walk the streets again." She took a deep and almost fuming breath. "Everything that we do in this place really doesn't matter because to them were the bad girls whose mistakes have left their marks on us. The warrens don't give a damn about our future because in this city whose to say we'll have one."  
_

_"Do you think you'll be out before you turn sixteen?" Samone leaned forward and looked into the young brunette's eyes. "Your crimes weren't that bad enough to keep you in for another year. Were they?"_

_Selina shook her head and tapped her fingers on her lap. "Let's just say I was a real bad girl. A little stray that liked to make a mess of things. My talents were disruption who other girl can even dare themselves to compare with the record that boys in blue keep in a filing cabinet." she said steadily, keeping her voice exceptionally silent, almost like a purr. "You can work so hard to a good life without the cages, but you hide run from the mistakes that stick with you. I'll get out eventually but don't think I'll change my ways. A girl's gotta eat. And I've starved for to long. Years. That's going to change once I take control of my life."  
_

_Samone arched her eyebrow, "How are you going to do that, Selina?"_

_"I'm going to survive," Selina smirked, defiantly. "By making the rich broke." _

_She pushed back her tray away from her, then, stood and Samone eyed her warily. The lightness of the conversation had ended as tension started to build in the space between them. Selina lifted up her tray and tossed the remaining food in the trash can and looked down at the blonde haired teenager. " Don't allow yourself to settle for less than what you desire from people. You'll get nowhere if you don't walk by yourself."  
_

_Samone looked up at her. "Do a lot of women walk by themselves?"_

_Selina shrugged nonchalantly. " I wouldn't say that. I think cats are the only ones that walk by themselves."_

* * *

Selina slowly opened her dark coffee-colored eyes to the coldness of rain, soaking and absorbing onto her freckled skin as she leaned her waist against the iron railing, her fingers gripping the ledge. Her eyes flickered down ever so slightly, and chin shadowed over her toned shoulder, staring at the water drops rolling down her bare arms. She took a deep and compressed inhale, breathing in the humid haze of the afternoon storm forming above the Roman renaissance architecture of the old terra- cotta stone buildings across the rippling pools of the Arno river. She kept her dark eyes focused on her creamy skin as the gentle caress of sunlight capturing on her drenched skin, feeling the warmth seep into her rigid bones as her full wine colored burgundy colored lips expressed a somber frown. She parted her lips just enough to release a quite sigh.

Her guilty conscience seemed to have stricken her once again with doubt thoughts of sharing a whole new and unknown lifetime with the man she betrayed in the dingy underground sewers below the foundations of Gotham. The deafening and sickening sound of his bones cracking from the forceful jab of Bane's armored knee into his stretched out back, shuttered through her veins. Those sounds of torture became her nightmares after she vanished from the steel bars, the piercing screeches of a man feeling his whole body snap always created eruptions of unsteady bile in her churning stomach as tears branded her guilt, searing the words of her self-loathing actions on her pale skin.

_How could he still love me? _she thought herself, feeling the thuds of her disobedient heart. _After what I did to him? After all the pain I caused him because of my self-preservation of surviving another die without a bullet in my chest. He should have his freedom to live a better life without my little demons dragging him down. He deserves someone else. Someone that won't be the death of him._

Selina scuffed away the tears welling in her dark pools of molten coffee, swiping them away with a gentle brush of her shaky fingers. She blinked her painted lashes a few times, in hopes the mascara won't be running down her cheeks. She clenched her jaw, tensing her throat muscles and breathed out a frustrated breath, confessing the truth that always been known to her from the first time they bore a gaze into the other's eyes. The first time she stared at the man beyond the veil of his despairing and crippled body and saw something worthwhile deep inside the darken mystery of his concealed heart. "But I still love him."

All those moments, those real moments with him weren't a dream for her scarred heart to grasp. Everything was real, from his incredible warm kisses on her lips, deep baritone ghosting over the sides of her graceful neck and the gesture of affection during those morning of sipping freshly made coffee on the balcony and feeling his broad and strong arms wrap around her trim waist as they both embraced the dawn.

She closed her eyes momentarily and found those memories with him in the drifts of her clustered thoughts of misty glimmers of her tragic past.

_Rain cascaded through the misty cobble stone streets, orange glow of light from mounted posted reflected in her dark coffee colored eyes as she felt him press his warm and solid body against her lithe one. They were underneath a under hang, inhaling the fresh scent of roses from the potted flowers as the rain-soaked their clothes, making their skin tightening underneath their shirts. Selina looked deeply into Bruce's marquise, hooded hazel eyes as his large_ hands encircled over her drenched body. _His torso was radiating enough heat to make her feel crouched as his legs were pinned against hers. His lips were set in a firm line and his eyes were narrowed. He was looking into depth of her large brown orbs with a soulful gleam._

_Selina lifted up her hand off his shoulder, brushing off the wisps of hair from his temples as he dropped his gaze and she watched the corners of his lips arched up slightly, creating an expression of a sulk. She didn't say nothing kept rubbed the pad of her thumb over his bottom lip.  
_

_"Selina," he finally breathed out with a huskily tone. "I need to tell you something."  
_

_"It can wait," she replied, cupping her hand over the razor edge of his cheek. She whispered a low breath against the lope of his ear. "Let's just for now be... quite."  
_

_Bruce nodded silently, his hazel pools were glistening with moisture, his hand moved back her back, stroking the long strands of damp auburn. She closed her eyes for a moment, and wrapped her slender arms around his broad shoulders, holding him and refusing to let go of him. Bruce rested his forehead against hers, as they rocked their bodies into a rhythmic waltz. They felt breath ghost over their skin as he was having a moment for her, another moment where he could be his true self without the guilt dragging him down.  
_

_Their noses touched at the tips, parallel as she pulled in closer and tentatively grazed his lips with a soft kiss. He opened closed his eyes and parted his mouth as the taste of her kiss seeped down his throat, making him feel a jolt of youth penetrate deep inside of him. He raised his hand, fingers were entangled and crushing with her messy ringlets of hair. He covered her mouth with a fast and moist kiss and opened herself instantly to him.  
_

_His other hand reached down the curve of her left hip, as he pulled her into an almost suffocating embrace and kissed her in a way that left them both breathless. His tongue thrusted against her lips, opening them wider with commanding suction, grazing over her teeth. She threaded her fingers through his short strands of hair touching the nape of his neck, and her body rocked greedily against his, making his tongue roll over hers. They were inhaling and exhaling, lips slipping and sliding as the noises of their heated passion erupted in the darkness around them. Lips were becoming bruised and veins burning with a fever.  
_

_He moved his soft lips over hers, trembling and ceasing their journey.  
_

_They finally broke apart, catching the other's fervid gaze and panting for high intakes of breath. He caressed his fingers over the side of her face and curved his lips into a watery smile. He looked up as the flashes of lightning caught his hazy eyes and whispered in a deep voice as he dropped a gentle kiss along the sharpness of her jaw.  
_

_"Storm's coming , Miss Kyle."_


End file.
